


Petrification

by ImperialMint



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Blood and Violence, Captivity, Interspecies Relationship(s), M/M, Unhealthy Relationships, capture bonding, petrification
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-24 15:38:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4925308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperialMint/pseuds/ImperialMint
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captured for a myth concerning immortality, Ace struggles for his freedom, all the while falling more and more for the very man who captured him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Petrification

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [aiane](aianeart.tumblr.com) for being the most patient partner ever! I had so much fun on this project and yeah I hope everyone else enjoys it. You can find aiane's amazing art for this story at [this link here!](http://aianeart.tumblr.com/post/130696568041/artwork-for-a-bit-late-op-reversebang-project-i)

All around them, Marco could hear the howl of the wind and crash of waves. He inhaled salt-crusted air before he entered a darkly lit tavern, patrons inside turning and grinning when they recognised the mark tattooed across his chest, bare for all to see despite the storm raging outside. It wasn’t a mark Marco was going to cover up so easily, after all. He narrowed his eyes and peered through the gloom, his earrings clinking against his neck as he turned, and when he finally located the man he was looking for, Marco marched forward, wet boots heavy against the wooden floor.

Kaido of a Thousand Beasts was a renowned pirate, one of the top sailors in these waters. He was a harsh man, one who dealt out punishment as he saw fit, but he also was in possession of one of the greatest whisper mills in all of the seas. If you wanted to know something, Kaido was your man, and Marco squared his shoulders, surveying the huge man before him with a bored look.

“And what can I do for the Phoenix,” he drawled, taking a huge gulp of ale as he did so. Marco shifted his weight, tilted his chin and waited. There wasn’t a chance that he was going to discuss this before being invited to sit, and his perseverance seemed to pay off. Kaido grinned, yellowed teeth flashing in the gloom, and nodded for Marco to join him at the table.

“Again I ask,” Kaido said, voice as deep as the ocean but far more dangerous. Marco would chance the oceans and her wrath a thousand times over before he let himself over to Kaido. “What is it you want, Phoenix?”

Marco tilted his head to the side, subtly glancing around to see if anyone was listening in. It was doubtful they were – Kaido would rip an ear off if he had the chance – but Marco needed to check, if only for his own peace of mind.

“If you can supply Whitebeard’s main ship with these,” Marco slid a small slip of parchment over the table, his small script filling the cramped space, “then we can work out a reward.”

Kaido stared at him blankly, eyes flicking down to the parchment. His eyebrows raised quickly, nostrils flaring, and he looked at Marco incredulously.

“These items,” he said, and Marco sat back in his chair, grinning easily.

“Yes,” he replied simple, and Kaido looked down at the words again. “We have the area targeted already, and we’re confident that, with the right equipment from the right person,” Marco stressed the last two words, looking pointedly at Kaido, “our catch will be successful.”

Kaido shifted in his chair, eyes gleaming. He was an opportunistic man, and with the way Marco was spinning this request, he had no doubts that Kaido would be on board.

“You really think you’re suited to hunting mermaids, do you?” Kaido’s eyes grew sharper, his tone more serious, and he seemed as though he was testing Marco for something.

“Yes,” Marco said simply, and Kaido hummed, looking down at the list.

“We’ll soon find out if you’re not,” he said with a booming laugh. “And if that happens, I’ll come and claim the catch myself.” Kaido held his hand out across the table, and Marco took it.

The deal was sealed.

**.**

The sea was whipping up a storm fast and, as the ship tilted, Ace could see men stumble. He snorted as a few of them hung onto whatever they could find, before blinking slowly and settling down lower in the water. He knew he shouldn’t be out here, but he’d been waiting for a storm like this just so he could observe one of the largest ships he’d ever seen.

They’d been sailing in Ace’s territory for a while now, completely unaware of the shoal of mermaids that inhabited this territory. Although he’d been warned against it, staying away was not something his curiosity would allow him to do, and Ace enjoyed watching the strange humans on their ship. Their lives were so simple, so fragile, and they fascinated Ace. He wondered why they were at sea – they were hardly suited for it, and Ace had come across plenty of human corpses in this territory.

Yet still they persevered, and Ace wanted to understand why.

Tucking his hands down by his side, Ace pushed through the crashing waves to move closer to the ship. He could smell something enticing, something he wasn’t sure he’d ever smelt before, and his curiosity got the better of him. The algal blooms were suffering at this time of year, and food was scarce, so anything that was a potential meal couldn’t be overlooked.

Ace swam around the ship slowly, taking in all angles and wondering where the scent could be coming from. The water churned above him as the storm worsened, and Ace ducked under the waves, letting the wild ocean sway with him. He smiled to himself, feeling a little sorry for the humans. No matter how much they loved the sea, after all, they could never be one with her as Ace and his kind were.

The ship was covered in barnacles, sea life swarming underneath the boat. It was an old ship, a well loved one too, Ace thought, and he marvelled at the scarred underside, proof this ship had fought and won. Ace resisted the urge to touch the barnacle coated wood, turning sharply and swimming away, bursting to the surface and gasping sharply. He didn’t often use his secondary breathing system, preferring his gills over gulping down air, but emotions had coursed through him, and Ace had needed the gasp. As he floated on the top of the water, Ace’s eyes raked over the ship, and he saw the men lowering something into the sea.

These humans were foolish, Ace thought. They stood in the face of danger and continued on without a care, ignoring nature’s warnings and ploughing on regardless. This was the kind of storm that could easily kill a merperson, let alone a human. Ace felt horror creep over him as one of the men slipped, his companions catching him just in time.

There was nothing else to do except swim closer, and Ace did just that. All he could smell when he dived under the waves was the tantalising scent from before, and almost unconsciously Ace found himself drifting towards the boat once more.

Whatever they had lowered into the water, a strange box of linking bars, smelt deliciously, and Ace noticed something hanging in the centre of the box. A glance above showed no activity from the humans, the waves dipped in preparation for a large swell, and Ace decided he could risk it. He was hungry, after all, and a meal this good couldn’t be left untouched.

Ace tugged against the meat in the box and a flurry of activity was unleashed. The food dropped, and Ace caught it just in time, and he prepared to swim off. As he flicked his tail to move, the bars closed, and Ace felt a sheet of cold ice pass through his body. Air bubbles escaped his mouth as panic gripped him, and Ace slammed his hands against the bars, trying to push his way out.

He had to get out. These humans would kill him if they could, and Ace continued to bash against the bars, a cry of desperation escaping his throat as his efforts failed. Still he tried and he tried, never content to just give up, especially when the stakes were so high.

Nothing worked, though. Even slamming his tail against the side gave no result, and Ace looked around wildly, searching for signs of anyone, anything, that could help him break free. The bars were too strong for only him to break, most likely made of the only material that could trap a merperson – something he had foolishly passed off as nothing more than an old story to scare the younglings from going near to the humans.

Oh how wrong he’d been, Ace thought, and he ducked down low as the box began to rise, trying to slide out of the bottom bars, trying to shift and break, trying anything just to get away from the humans that had captured him.

The first human he saw up close had scars dotting his face, a grim smile on his lips as he looked Ace up and down. The ship veered dangerously for a moment, and Ace was thrown against the bars, chest heaving as he struggled to breathe, waiting for his secondary respiratory system to kick in. He crumpled, listening as another of the humans shouted out, calling whoever was steering the ship an idiot, and fought not to give into despair.

Captured didn’t mean killed, Ace knew. There were rumours of old, supported by scars on elderly merpeople’s tails and fins, that humans had hunted their kind before. Many had died, but many had also escaped. Ace could do that, he wouldn’t let himself rot away with these filthy humans. They had taken him, but the fight was far from over. Ace was determined to escape.

“Captain!” one of the men shrieked, tugging Ace’s box further onto the ship and away from the sea. The storm, for some inexplicable reason, seemed to be on the human’s side and had subsided somewhat. Ace wasn’t the sort who believed in signs, though some might have said it meant he had to be there.

No, Ace thought, he needed to get back into the ocean and return to his shoal.

“Captain!” the man shrieked again, and Ace could hear the steady thump of footsteps before he saw the human. When the human did appear, he was colossal, easily the largest human Ace had ever seen, and flanked by a man with light coloured hair.

“We caught it!” the man said, excitement bubbling from him, and Ace only just resisted the urge to reach out and strangle the stupid human. “We caught the mermaid!”

Ace narrowed his eyes at the word. His people were merpeople, not mermaids or mermen. He curled in on himself a little tighter, glaring at the captain and his companion.

“Good,” the light haired man said, and he gestured for everyone to move back as he approached. Ace could feel that he was powerful, had the blood of Ace’s relatives on his hands, though Ace didn’t think he had slain merpeople. All creatures humans considered mythical were related, and this man had certainly killed many creatures in his time. Was Ace just another crossed out line on a long list?

“Take him downstairs,” the man commanded, and there was a flurry of activity as Ace was pushed towards a large hole in the deck, his box attached to hooks and pulleys and all manner of things. Ace didn’t watch them, though. He kept his eye on the light haired man, watched as he moved towards the captain and murmured something. He was smiling, Ace saw, but there was something in his expression that seemed strange, as if he wasn’t completely sincere.

Ace flicked his tail out, scaled sliding against some of the men who had crept too close. He was curious now, for if this human wasn’t completely sincere then there was a chance he could use this human to help him escape. Many sailors had been enchanted by merpeople before, and while Ace didn’t know the ancient songs or lures his ancestors had used, he still had to try.

Downstairs turned out to be in the deepest bowels of the ship in a corner of the storage area. Boxes and provisions shifted around with every movement of the ship, and Ace’s box was dragged to where there was a hole, sides raised to prevent the water inside from splashing onto the rest of the boat. Ace was impressed, really, for the water looked to be being pumped in and pumped out from somewhere (and how he had no idea, did humans possess magical powers after all?), keeping it from getting too dirty. There was enough space for Ace to swim around too, he noted, and if he’d come here willingly, this wouldn’t have been such a bad place to be.

But he wasn’t here willingly, and after they’d tipped him out of the box (hitting his fingers until they bled and he was forced to let go of the bars), the humans scuttled back hurriedly, hauling the box out of the water and bringing down thick bars that trapped Ace and his pool in a corner of the ship’s bowels. Ace snarled, diving down, and he found that the bottom was plated in sea-stone and the pipes to take water in and out were barred with sea stone too, impervious to anything he could do.

Agitated, Ace began swimming erratic loops around his pool, determined not to even look at the humans. If they wanted him, they had to fight for his attention. There was only one person he planned on reacting to, the light haired man, and Ace hoped it wouldn’t be too long before he could return to the open ocean.

Oh what a fool he’d been.

**.**

The mermaid had been caught, Marco thought, and relief flooded him as he ordered it to be taken into the pool Kaido had installed down below for them. The system he had installed for Marco worked perfectly – they’d trialled many runs with their own men to perfect it so Marco had been expecting nothing but the best – and the mermaid stared indignantly as it was hauled below.

It was a beautiful creature. Its tail was sleek with perfectly lined scales that glimmered red and dark oranges, beautiful in the water. It had spines too, long protrusions that extended across its back, and Marco was very pleased with the specimen they had caught. It looked to be fairly young too, in its prime, and Marco’s heart leapt in his chest in excitement. Whitebeard would be okay for a long while to come, so long as they kept this mermaid here.

While it was widespread as a legend that mermaid tears had healing properties, that wasn’t quite the truth. It was, in fact, the seawater a mermaid had touched, and they would have an entire pool of it from now on. Whitebeard could bathe in the healing water and his sores and wounds would remain calm. Marco wasn’t ready to lose his captain yet, and he knew the other members of the crew felt the same way as him.

A mermaid on their ship would ensure Whitebeard’s reign continued on for many more years, and they all needed that. No other man was as kind as Whitebeard was, no pirate as compassionate and understanding. If Whitebeard fell, the seas would descend into chaos, pirates picking at the land Whitebeard had left. There would be war, Marco knew, and the seas would be ruined. The world wouldn’t settle, there would be no one to balance the darkness out, and so Whitebeard needed to live.

What [BD1] was a mermaid in the grand scheme of things anyway? Marco had done far worse in his lifetime. He’d slaughtered other beasts looking for a cure for Whitebeard, harpies, chimeras, dragons, unicorns, and phoenixes falling under him. He carried their blood on his hands, a curse seeped into his skin, and Marco had vowed he would do whatever he had to in order to protect his captain.

The other men were suspicious from the start. A lot of them had called upon old stories of mermaids that would rip humans limb from limb or enchant them to drown in the ocean. It hadn’t been easy for Marco to convince them, but they’d all relented in the end, knowing that they needed to help Whitebeard no matter the cost. Kaido’s movement system and pool had been a saviour to them all, and Marco knew they’d have this mermaid in their grip for a long time to come.

“It’s a fighter, that one,” one of the men who had taken the mermaid below said, emerging from the darkness of the ship and coming over to Marco’s side. “It’s up to no good,” the man continued, shaking his head.

“Give it a few days, and you’ll have forgotten it’s even there,” Marco assured, and the man looked at him a little dubiously. “I’m the only one who will have contact with it, the rest of you can carry on as usual.”

Marco had decided that long before he’d even approached Kaido. No one else could be allowed to deal with the mermaid because no one else understood. Marco had studied what little material he could and had been tracking the shoal they’d taken this one from for months. He knew their patterns, their favourite feeding grounds, what foods they avoided, how they lived. Marco knew everything he needed to know to keep this mermaid alive.

He didn’t visit it the first few days. One way to tame a beast was to get it to submit, and to do that it needed to be desperate. The stores on the mermaid’s level were emergency stores, so no one had even been near the mermaid in days. It would be craving company, light, and food. Marco remembered seeing a man use this technique on a dog before, and while he’d thought the dog was foolish for running to the man with nothing but servitude in its demeanour, he thanked the natural order of things now.

Marco collected fish from that day’s catch, selecting various species as well as some crustaceans they had in storage. He finished his bucket off with a handful of seaweed and headed down below with a lantern.

They were sailing towards a small lagoon and the waves were a little choppy as they navigated from the open ocean into the calmer space. It meant Marco’s climb down to the mermaid was a little slow, and the mermaid knew he was coming long before he appeared.

When he arrived, Marco lit the other torches in that area of the storage room, throwing out enough light to look at the cage and the pool inside. The mermaid was nowhere to be seen, but Marco could just make out a shadow circling the pool, long tail cutting through the water effortlessly, the mermaid swimming unlike how any human could dream of.

“Oi,” Marco said, banging his bucket on the bars. The mermaid startled, diving as deep as it could, and Marco bashed the bucket against the bars again. “Mermaid! Food!”

That at least seemed to get its attention, and it bobbed upwards, hair covering its face as it came out of the water, just enough so that its chin rested on top of the pool.

“Food,” Marco said again, shaking the bucket. He took a fish out and threw it between the bars. It landed with a soft plunk into the water, and the mermaid turned, wrinkling its nose when it saw the fish.

“You expect me to eat that?” it said, voice low and unlike anything Marco had imagined or read accounts of. For a moment, he was too shocked to speak, eyes wide. He knew mermaids had the ability to talk (so many tales of sailors plunging to their deaths after listening to the sweet words of the mermaids), but he’d never really imagined it to be true.

“Yes,” Marco said in reply, tone brutish. He wasn’t going to let this mermaid get the better of him. “You will eat that or you’ll starve.”

The mermaid’s eyes flashed in the dark, and it looked at the fish, plucking its floating body out of the water distastefully.

“I would prefer,” the mermaid said, lip curled to reveal sharp teeth, “to kill my own food next time, human,” it snarled, biting into the flesh of the fish regardless.

“You’re not in a position to make any demands,” Marco retorted, throwing a handful more of fish inside the cage. Some fell into the water and yet others bounced on the space between the pool and the cage bars. Marco figured it would give the mermaid something to do in learning to climb out of the pool. Legend said they liked to sit on rocks, after all.

“Oh,” the mermaid said, swallowing heavily. “Am I not?” it asked, but its tone was far from one Marco would have liked. In fact, it seemed as though it knew too much and knew exactly how to play Marco.

“Tell me then, oh gracious captor, what you plan to do with me?” it said, dropping the fish in the water and swimming closer to Marco, arms resting on the rim of the pool.

“You will stay here,” Marco replied, not having a problem with sharing the mermaid’s purpose with it. “Your kind cover your skin in a special oil that, when mixed with seawater, is beneficial to human health. Our captain will bathe in your pool water once every few days, and his ailments will heal.”

Whatever the mermaid had been expecting, it clearly hadn’t been expecting that, for it pushed back from the side, letting its body slide down into the water as it shook its head, the spines on its back deflating.

“I need live fish,” it said, voice sullen as it sunk lower into the water. “Your filter system isn’t keeping parasites out. Unless you want a diseased ‘mermaid’ on your ship, I’d suggest you give me live fish, let them eat the parasites and let me kill my own food,” the mermaid hissed, revealing sharp teeth and dark eyes. It was a threat, Marco knew, and he smirked down at the creature.

“You will stay here, and you will eat what you’re given.” Marco turned around, done with talking to the mermaid. He had other duties to perform, after all. “It’s not like you can die anyway, is it now?”

He left with a smile. Everything was going perfectly.

**.**

Life in captivity was simple. Ace had never really understood dogs before, but he could now. He was fed far more often than he was able to in the wild (apparently, Marco had told him, that was the correct term, and freedom was a ridiculous notion, so Ace liked to call it his freedom as often as he could), he had a safe place to sleep, and could find out lots about humans. So, if Ace had been a simpler creature, he might have enjoyed living in the pool.

As it was, he wasn’t a simpler creature. Ace was a merperson, a child of the sea. He could predict the seas better than any other creature, swim faster than any fish, survive deadly seas no human could ever hope to. He was a king of the sea, in truth, yet he was shackled here like a pet, fed and watered and told he was doing well just because he was existing.

There was nothing to do in this place either. Ace spent the first few days in darkness, keen eyes picking out fish remains where the sun poked through tiny crevices from above. Some days, water would tip from above, the boat rocking to the lullaby of an ocean storm, and Ace would wait in the middle of his pool, perfectly countering the rock of the boat, and hope that the walls of the boat would break, that he’d be set free into the raging storm.

The ship never did break, though, and Ace’s dreams of water gushing in to drown the humans and set him free were never fulfilled.

Feeding occurred every other day, and Ace found himself growing thinner, his scales and skin growing duller. He’d even started flaking scales, something that had never happened to him before, and Ace had splashed water at Marco until he’d left when he’d seen him, wishing he had powers of legend to control water and make Marco drown.

“You will stop this,” Marco said on his return, and Ace remembered how he’d calmly introduced himself the day after Ace had arrived, smiling kindly. There was none of that kind man now, only a man who had captured a merperson for his own selfishness.

“What if I don’t,” Ace challenged, though he was too tired to continue his tail slaps for too much longer. No human needed to know that, however.

“Work with me,” Marco implored, crouching down by the bars. He rested his hand against them, and Ace stilled in the water, curiosity overtaking him as the kind Marco returned. “Please.”

Ace wanted to scream, to drag Marco down and tell him exactly how they could work, but his options were limited. There wasn’t much he could do, and the kindness Marco was showing intrigued him. He moved closer to the edge, resting his arms on the ground as his body floated.

“Get me live fish. I need them, or I’m going to die,” Ace said, testing the waters. If Marco gave him this, it could be a turning point in their relationship. If Ace could get Marco to trust him then, perhaps, he could exploit him and escape. Yes, that was exactly what Ace was going to do.

“Mermaids can’t die,” Marco scoffed, but he narrowed his eyes, nodding curtly a moment later. “But I’ll get you live fish if it’ll make you more comfortable. You don’t look very well.”

Ace rolled his eyes. “Captivity doesn’t exactly agree with me,” he said dryly, and Marco nodded, though his mind was clearly far away.

“You want to talk about it?” Ace asked, his plan falling neatly into place. Perhaps luck was on his side after all.

“It’s nothing that concerns you,” Marco snapped, but he looked at Ace a moment later, considering something. “If you wanted to attack someone without them knowing, someone who was spying on you and who you wanted to take out with little fuss, how would you do it near the archipelago?”

Interest piqued, Ace knew exactly what archipelago Marco was talking about, and he considered the options. If it was to be a secret attack then the best way would be to use Ace to go under the boat and cut into the ship. He could sink it easily, gain enough momentum to crack the wood with a tail slap. He could easily tear into that crack after with his hands. The ship would crumble under his touch quickly and quietly. By the time they realised what was happening, it would be too late.

Marco wouldn’t let him out though, Ace thought, and he soured.

“Your best bet is to let me out to attack the ship,” he said anyway. “I can sink the ship in a moment, the only reason I can’t here is this damned pool is too small and you’ve coated this pool.” Ace had tried many times, but there was hardly enough space here to swim decently, let alone stir up the power he needed.

“What are the other options?” Marco asked, leaning forwards. His hands pressed against the bars and while Ace was tempted to dart forward and bite his fingers off, he resisted. Marco wouldn’t like him much after that, and Ace depended on Marco liking him.

“There’s no other way you can do it in secret, you know that. If there was any other way, you would have thought of it now,” Ace said lightly, and it was true. The archipelago was a favourite resting place due to its visibility. If Marco and his people wanted to attack someone at the archipelago then that person had seriously done something wrong. It was a marked safe place, and attacking someone there meant war.

Except Marco didn’t seem to want war, and that was something Ace could live with.

“It’s true,” Marco conceded, and Ace felt hope rise in him. “But I can’t let you go free.”

Ace gritted his teeth, curling his tongue as he watched Marco think for a moment. He was a peculiar human, one who didn’t always wear his expressions in his body language, but Ace always seemed to be able to understand him. Were all humans like this? Ace didn’t know, but he liked to think that Marco was special.

Almost, a little voice said, that Marco was his.

He couldn’t keep a human though, especially one that couldn’t even be bothered to learn he was a merperson and not a mermaid. Marco was still a human, not matter how interesting he was at times, and Ace couldn’t find himself liking Marco. Their relationship was unbalanced. Just because Marco was the only person he had contact with-- well that had to be the reason he was growing fond of him.

“I’ll come back,” Ace said, and he was a little startled to find himself actually believing that. Of course he wasn’t an idiot. He wasn’t going to actually return (Marco probably knew that), but if they wanted to attack the ship then it was something Marco actually had to do.

“Sure,” Marco said, rolling his eyes and leaning on the bars to Ace’s pool. “Just like how I’ll grow wings and follow you. I’m not an idiot.”

Ace grinned, resting his hand on his cheek. “Well then, what options do you have?”

There was no reply, and Ace watched Marco vanish upstairs. Slinking back to his pool, Ace was about to dive down and hide in the murky water when Marco reappeared, a long, thin tube in his hand.

“Hey mermaid!” he called as he reached the bars, holding the tube up. Ace looked on in curiosity, lifting himself out of the water, and then he felt a sharp prick of pain on his shoulder. Something was buried in his skin, and Ace tore the strange object out, turning to look at Marco in betrayal.

“It’s a slow acting poison. It’ll give you enough time to take out that ship and then come back before your body starts cramping, and you need the antidote.” Marco grinned, taking a small vial from his pocket and dangling it before Ace. “I have the antidote. If you want it, you get back in that pool. If not, you’ll be cursed to an agonising life forever.”

Ace opened his mouth, but a strange tingling in his arm stopped him. A spot of blood dribbled from the puncture wound, and he could feel that something was wrong with his body. He hissed, slapping his tail against the water and shaking his head.

“I hate you,” Ace shouted, regardless of how childishly it was. He really had no choice now. No matter how far he got, he’d never be able to put up with the pain (and death, for while Marco seemed to think merpeople were immortal, they were really not). Marco was clever, and he knew exactly how to trap Ace.

“Get me out of here then,” Ace hissed, and Marco began working away at the pulleys and various other things that would lever Ace out. He gripped onto bars and somehow managed to haul himself out into the darkness of the ship.

It was evening, Ace noted first of all. He felt emotion swell in his chest as he saw the sun setting, felt the ocean breeze on his skin, and then Ace was off on his own, crawling past people and flopping in an ungainly matter, hauling himself over the edge of the ship and into the sea. It was a heavy drop and far down, but it only stung a little when he hit the water. He was streamlined and fast, no matter how long he’d been cooped up and whatever human poison was inside of him. The ocean was Ace’s home, and he swam as deep as he could, stretching and enjoying his freedom.

His joy was short lived, however, when the water current shifted slightly, fish skimming away from him, and Ace realised he had a task to do. He could already feel one of his fins numbing from the poison, and if Ace wanted to enjoy his short lived freedom, he needed to take out the boat Marco wanted him to.

Ace sped through the water, instantly recognising his position. The archipelago was a fair way away from a boat, but nothing for a merperson. Ace crossed the distance in minutes, closing his eyes as he swam. He smiled, cool, fresh water slipping over his skin, and he wanted to curse every human for ever taking this away from him.

His frustration was taken out easily on the boat. Ace cracked the bottom with a tail slap, causing the humans above to shout out as their boat rocked. He smiled to himself as he heard the humans panic, and Ace rolled in the water to tear the boat apart by hand, water gushing in as he widened the crack. Humans should never have set sail, Ace thought, and he sunk lower into the sea in order to make his escape.

Freedom was something Ace had wanted for so long, but now he had it, he had no idea what to do with himself. He found himself drifting, letting his limbs begin to cramp, and he slowly floated back to the ship, letting them haul him from the water far more easily than they had the first time.

He hadn’t given up, Ace swore to himself, but there was no point celebrating freedom when poison still tied him to this ship. The next time he swam free… that would be the time when he ran away from these humans.

Back down in the darkness, with only lamps for lighting, nothing like the shining, golden sun, Ace slipped into his pool, resting against the side. Marco joined him swiftly, something in his hands that Ace knew would be the antidote. He entered Ace’s area through a small gate Ace had never noticed before, crouching by the side of the pool. Oh how easy it would be to pull Marco down, drown him and be done with it. Though if Ace killed Marco, he’d surely be signing his own death notice, so perhaps not.

“You helped us a lot today,” Marco said quietly, “thank you.”

Ace was too shocked to reply, and he stared at Marco as he approached, injecting something quickly into his arm and begging a retreat, back behind the bars and safe from Ace’s potential wrath. The antidote flowed through him, and Ace felt his muscles relax, the pain soothing. Marco stepped away, his face suddenly cold and face blank, and Ace watched him carefully, wondering why Marco had bothered to thank him.

Marco left without looking back and without a word, and that somehow stung more than any poison had.

**.**

Days passed, though they didn’t hold much meaning for Ace. He lingered in his pool, avoiding buckets when they came to collect his water, though he didn’t know why. He was supposed to have a good filtering system (though he needed those fish, Marco had said he’d get them and yet there were still no live fish), so Ace didn’t really know why it was being collected. There seemed to be a great hush about it, though, and Marco just looked at him whenever he asked. So Ace stopped asking.

“You can survive anything,” Marco said to him one memorable night, during a storm Ace had prayed for. Storms always had been something to caution, but the solution for the merpeople was just to swim deeper. On a boat, a storm was terrifying, and Ace spent the night in his pool, heart jumping in his chest as the waves battered the ship.

“I can’t!” Ace had replied scathingly, eyes wide as he tried to roll through one particularly jarring wave. “I can actually die, you know,” Ace muttered, though Marco didn’t seem to hear him. He was fixated on this idea that Ace couldn’t die, and it terrified Ace a little.

It would be a lie to say they hadn’t grown closer. Ace was equal parts hateful and curious towards Marco, and now he had his plan to get Marco to trust him, Ace was letting himself enjoy Marco a little more. They had small conversations, nothing interesting to anyone else, but it was something for Ace to do that wasn’t float in the murky water and wish he had a fish.

“Tell me about the sea then,” Marco challenged, and he sat down on the floor, carving into a round thing he’d called an apple. Ace had asked to try some, but Marco had simply shook his head. No fruit or vegetables for the captive, apparently. He was on a special diet, or so Marco had said, but Ace thought that was bullshit. He should be allowed to try an apple at least.

Ace paddled closer to the side and gently rested against the side of the pool.

“It’s amazing,” he said, letting his tail swirl in the pool, mind finally off of the rocking of the boat. “You’re so free, you can do whatever you want.” Ace looked down, not wanting to continue this conversation.

“That’s why I became a pirate,” Marco said, and Ace looked up in interest. Marco hardly ever shared information about himself, and Ace was going to get every inch of information he could. “To be free,” Marco said with a smile, lounging back against a block of crates.

“Are you free?” Ace asked, and Marco shrugged, picking at something on his trousers.

“Maybe. Not really. Yes.” He frowned, eyes darting to the pool. “I’m on the edge,” Marco clarified, though it wasn’t much of a clarification really.

“The edge?” Ace parroted, and Marco nodded, bringing his knees up.

“You’re helping me, all of us really, stay free. The water we collect from an immortal mermaid will protect our captain. With our captain, balance can be maintained in the pirate world, and so it remains peaceful.” Marco shot him a small smile, and Ace felt horror coil in his belly.

Was that really what Marco was doing? Keeping Ace there just to give his dirty water to someone? Dirty water he thought had healing properties? Ace glanced around himself, seeing nothing but cloudy sea water.

“I want my fish,” Ace said suddenly, looking at Marco. “I want my fish, and unless I get them then I refuse to talk to you or let you near this tank.”

The storm rumbled outside, and Ace slunk back in his tank as Marco stood. Marco had promised, so why had he lied and not delivered? Ace was tempted to ask, tempted to demand, but he didn’t think it would get him anywhere.

“Fish would sully the water,” Marco said, almost without emotion, and something inside of Ace snapped tightly into place. Fish would sully the water would they? Well humans had been destroying nature to suit them, and Marco had caught Ace himself. How dare he?

“I am a living being,” Ace said tightly, and Marco stepped up to the bar as Ace hauled himself half-out of the water, balancing on the edge with his arms. “You took me from my home and the people I love. You did that, all for the water I swim in for some ridiculous myth!”

Ace felt emotion well in him, tears springing to his eyes. He shook his head, cursing how the humans were changing him, forcing his body into something more human than fish (he’d never cried in the ocean before, why did he have to change now).

“You don’t get it!” he shouted, voice reverberating around them. Ace’s tail slapped against the water as he moved forward, pressing his face against the bars, wanting to reach outside of them and rip Marco’s stupid face apart. “You don’t fucking get it, do you?”

Hollow laughter echoed out of Ace’s mouth, and his hand managed to grab Marco’s shirt. He pulled him against the bars, not caring that Marco looked uncomfortable or the smell of sweat and human filth accompanied him.

“We’re not fancy little creatures from your shitty books. Merpeople are as mortal as any other creature. One day I will die,” Ace half-sobbed, gripping Marco’s shirt tighter. He could feel the cage closing around him, feel how his fins were slowly decaying, musculature fading as he could only swim vague circles. This pool was his grave, Ace knew, and he couldn’t bear it anymore. “I will die like everything else, and what will you do then? Marco? What will you fucking do then?”

For a moment, Marco didn’t say anything, and Ace felt anger boil inside of him. He wished he had the powers of a venomous fish, or even learnt some skills from their fighters. Maybe then Ace wouldn’t be in this mess.

“But your power,” Marco said, voice confused and expression clouded. “Your power, your immortality, your healing, your-“ he broke off as Ace pulled him tight against the cage again, shaking his head. Tears were falling again, and Ace pushed Marco away, resting his hands flat on the floor of his prison. The ship swayed gently, and Ace wished that the storm wouldn’t calm, that it would rage on to would topple the ship and its men, killing them all.

“None of that exists,” Ace said, tired of it all. “Merpeople aren’t immortal, and the only ones who believe we are are you stupid humans.” Ace looked up, searching Marco’s eyes for a sign of something – anything – that showed he understood, that he finally _got_ what Ace was telling him.

“Immortal beasts exist,” Marco said firmly, and Ace wanted to pull at his hair and rip his scales off. How selfish could one human be? Fish did now know what selfish was, Ace was beginning to realise. But humans, oh humans, they were dripping with it.

“No,” Ace replied, voice firm despite his exhaustion of the topic. “Immortality doesn’t exist. Slaughter thousands of beasts, but you won’t find immortality.” Ace paused, bringing his tail under him and curling up as best as he could on land.

“How many beasts have you killed?” he risked, and he saw Marco’s eyes widen, fear in them. “How many humans?”

Ace’s answer was a shake of the head, and he looked down. He didn’t need to ask; Ace had always smelt the death and blood lingering on Marco’s skin. He’d committed terrible sins against the purest of creatures, so Ace didn’t know why he thought he’d have been any different. He was going to die by Marco’s hand, he was sure of it.

“When I was free,” Ace began, a tight feeling in his chest building, as if to try and stop him speaking, “I had brothers, a family. Humans eventually forced us to leave our nursery caves, and we wandered the oceans for a while, looking for a home.”

Ace closed his eyes, remembering the freedom he had had with Sabo and Luffy, the feeling of water gliding against his skin, of chasing their prey and eating on rocky outcrops. He remembered the warmth of the sun, the brightness of the world, and nostalgia hit him like wave crashing down hard.

“Eventually we parted ways, but we still saw each other occasionally.” Ace looked at Marco, smiling sadly. “My last memory with them is seeing how deep we could dive. We were looking for squid, Luffy had a craving, and we just kept trying to defy all biology and keep pushing down in that darkness until we found that stupid squid.”

Ace could remember peering into an abyss, unaware of anything around him. It had been too deep for his senses, too alien, and yet they’d kept going deeper and deeper, just for a squid that they had a minute chance of seeing. But still Ace had pushed and pushed and pushed and-

“I remember coming back up to the surface and thinking how strange the ocean was. I’d spent my entire life in the ocean and yet I had no idea about that place. I wanted to know all I could, but I had limits.” Ace closed his eyes. “Merpeople are the kings of the seas, did you know that Marco? Even the kings of the seas have their limits.”

There was almost-silence for a moment, the only sound Marco’s heavy breathing and the ship creaking.

“Are you trying to tell me humans have limits too?” Marco asked slowly, and Ace opened his eyes, fixing a stare on Marco. He snorted, uncurled himself and moved back towards his pool. He was tired of talking.

“I wanted to tell you that I missed my brothers,” Ace said, and he watched Marco’s eyes widen as he slipped into the murky water, moving right down to the bottom so he didn’t have to look at Marco’s stupid face for a long, long while.

**.**

Marco didn’t visit the mermaid for some time. He sent some of the younger ship boys to feed the mermaid and didn’t bother to collect the water, avoiding the mermaid for as long as he could. He sighed, shaking his head, for as much as he wanted to keep calling Ace the mermaid, it had been a long while since he’d really thought that. He also hadn’t missed the way that Ace always referred to himself as a merperson rather than a mermaid, and Marco wondered how much books actually could teach him.

He had grown fond of Ace, that much he couldn’t hide from himself. He almost thought that Ace was a friend, though merpeople would always be inferior to humans. They had been doing so well, Marco had thought, and then Ace had, well.

Letting his head drop back, Marco looked up at the sky. He closed his eyes, Ace’s angry eyes flashing in his mind, unsettling him. Marco should have gotten him the fish, he thought. If he’d gotten Ace the fish, maybe he’d never have learnt the truth, and maybe there would have been hope. Now, though, Marco didn’t have a cure for Whitebeard and there was a useless merperson that hated him stuck in the bowels of the ship.

In an instant, everything changed. The ship rocked and the fire of cannons opened. Marco swore and ran to the main deck, staring at the huge marine ship that was coasting up their side. Who the fuck had been looking out?

“Who fucked up lookout?” he roared, and a few of the younger members skittered nervously. Marco swore, made a note to punish them later, and called for the ship to prepare for enemies to board. There wasn’t enough time to load the cannons properly before the navy ship crashed against theirs, and they’d only just be able to scrabble together a defence if they were lucky.

The attack came with the smash of boat against boat, and Marco spared a brief thought for Ace before the rush of battle was on them. He drew a pistol and knife, slicing through uniformed soldiers and roaring with his crewmates, blood staining the deck of the ship. It had been a long while since the Moby Dick had seen such carnage, and it was good for them all. They needed to fight to survive, no matter how horrific, and Marco finished off two men with one swing, firing pistol and slicing with his knife.

As the battle progressed, Marco realised that he had moved away from the stairs down to the base of the ship. In a slight lull of attacks, Marco looked over to the trap door, eyes wide when he noticed that it was open. It hadn’t been opened by Marco, that was for sure, and no other crewmate would go down there in an attack. That meant that the marines had to have snuck down there, and Marco’s blood ran cold at the thought of them finding Ace.

Without a second thought, Marco headed for the underbelly of the ship, slipping down with ease. He moved silently as the battle roared above him, listening for any sound as he drew nearer and nearer to Ace.

There was nothing and then a splash, a murmured voice, and another splash. Marco moved forwards, ducking behind barrels and watching two marines as they stood before Ace’s pool, shaking their heads.

“You’ll fetch a good price,” one of the marines drawled, nudging his partner. “We’ll have you butchered in no time, better that wasting away down here, eh!”

Marco shuddered at the thought of Ace being chopped up like a common fish, and he rose, cursing the fact that he hadn’t thought to reload his gun before he came down here. Well, he supposed, there was always a little more satisfaction when he used his knife.

The marines had almost broken the lock when Marco moved. He heard a splash and assumed Ace had dived down into the pool, and the first man was easy to take down. The second moved back, slicing his sword against Marco’s cheek as he jumped away. Marco felt the skin slice and blood trickle down, and he followed the marine. A knife to the leg and then a quick slice and the man was dead. Marco’s fingers traced the cut on his cheek, closing his eyes as he felt nothing but smooth skin. Of course, he thought, nothing would have changed.

Turning back to the first marine, Marco was surprised to see Ace against the bars, peering out. He looked as though his arms had been reaching out at some point, and his eyes were wide, almost as if he was shocked by what had happened.

“They wanted to kill me,” Ace said, and he said it so bluntly that Marco winced. Though Ace had been his captive, Marco had never wanted to kill Ace. Seeing death and being so helpless to defend himself… Marco felt pity stir in his stomach.

“I stopped them,” Marco said quietly, and Ace’s eyes turned to him, pupils dilating. He sniffed and then looked away, moving slightly back to his pool, just enough that part of his fin skimmed the pool surface.

“I’ve never been scared of humans before,” Ace admitted, and Marco moved over to the bars, resting his head against them. He was suddenly tired, the fight drawn from him, and he gave a bitter smile.

“Humans are the worst,” Marco said gently, closing his eyes. It would be so easy to fall asleep right now, but he had clean up to go yet. Marco had no doubt his crewmates had already finished off the marines, but there was still so much more to do, and he wanted none of it. He wanted to sit down here for a while and sleep.

A hand on his cheek startled him, and Marco opened his eyes, gazing into Ace’s. His pupils were wide, bright colour surrounding them, and Marco found himself unable to look away.

“You’re not cut,” Ace said, though it wasn’t much of a question. Marco pulled back slowly, guild coiling in his stomach (as it always did when he thought about this topic), and he shrugged.

“You went in search of immortality for someone else,” Ace muttered, and Marco shrugged again. It was ironic, really, but he never tried to dwell on it. He had no idea what had given him his powers, but somewhere along the line Marco had done something in his search to cure Whitebeard of time and illness. His wounds always healed.

“Maybe I will die one day,” Marco allowed himself to admit. These were thoughts he kept to himself, a terrible secret he would never openly admit. “Until then, I’ll look for a way to save my captain.”

Ace pulled back from his cheek, and Marco nodded to him.

“Someone will be down to clear the bodies away,” he said, half-turning to go back up on deck. “I’ll get you some fish tomorrow,” Marco added, ignoring the way Ace’s body jerked in surprise.

Some things just couldn’t be helped, and no matter what he’d said from the start, Marco cared for Ace much more than he’d ever admit. He smiled as he reached the upper deck, pleased to see the younger members were already scrubbing down. Whitebeard was overlooking the proceedings and he nodded, shoulders easing slightly, when he caught Marco’s eye.

And no matter how much he came to care for Ace, Marco would do anything he could to protect the one person who had always been there for him. He just hoped he’d never have to make a choice, for Marco had a feeling it would be an impossible one, as strange as it seemed.

**.**

After the battle, the pirates decided to lay low for a while. Ace listened as Marco threw fish into his pool (at least one of a handful of species Ace had asked for, and Ace was impressed that Marco had got all of them) as he told Ace what they were up to, paddling in the water as Marco stood above him.

“We don’t want to start too much trouble, and the marines will be looking for us,” Marco said as he threw another fish in, this one a species that would clean the tiniest parts of Ace’s scales. He could already feel one or two of the others working, and the feeling was beautiful.

“We’re heading to a shaded bay. The tide goes out and it makes a lagoon,” Marco said, upturning his bucket and nodding to himself. Ace hunkered down a little more, stretching out his tail. Marco had never come into his area like this, but Ace had suggested it, and he’d expected Marco to be off as soon as he was done, in fear of Ace harming him. It seemed as though they had both moved past that, however, and Ace was strangely content to let Marco stay with him for as long as he wanted.

“I was wondering,” Marco started, biting his lip as he paused. “The lagoon is completely disconnected from the sea when the tide is out,” he continued, and Ace looked at him with a frown. He knew all about this lagoon, why was Marco being so strange about it?

“I’m going to let you out in the lagoon. There won’t be any poisons, no odd tricks, nothing. You can swim in the lagoon for as long as you like until the tide starts coming in.” Marco pressed his lips together, avoiding Ace’s gaze, and Ace just kept on staring, almost not believing what Marco had said.

It wasn’t freedom and would never be freedom, but it was something. Marco was going to let him out, let him swim freely! Ace wouldn’t be able to get to the sea and complete freedom – jagged rocks rose up when the tide exposed the lagoon edge – but it was something.

“Really?” Ace said, moving closer to Marco.

“Really,” Marco assured him, and then he was gone, off to whatever job needed his attention.

The lagoon was beautiful. Ace had heard of it from others, but he’d never visited it himself, too scared he’d be trapped in the lagoon and hunted (oh how ironic things had turned out to be). The water was clear and cool over Ace’s skin, and he swam out as far as possible, returning to show Marco what he’d caught or found. Marco just watched from a small boat, eyes crinkling with laughter as he leant over the side.

“What’s your favourite fish?” Ace asked, eyes tracking the process of a small shoal that had just come to rest under the boat. He didn’t wait for an answer and instead took off after the fish, laughing at his newfound freedom. It was temporary, but it was good, even moreso that Marco was here.

There was something that had been bothering Ace though. He’d seen humans do it before, kiss each other, and he wanted to try it with Marco. He circled the boat lazily, listening to Marco talk about something or other (he wasn’t really paying attention, too interested in listening to the sound of his freedom), wondering if he could ask Marco or whether he should just go for it.

He decided to just go for it.

Marco was leaning over the side of the boat, trailing his hand in the surface water, and he looked up when Ace slowly approached. Ace moved forward slowly, pressing his lips to Marco’s. He was there for just a moment, a warm, lingering feeling on his lips, but it was enough to satisfy his curiosity. Marco’s eyes were wide when he pulled back, and Ace felt a strong curl of satisfaction pool in his stomach.

With a grin, Ace dived under the water and swam back to the boat, knowing the people on board would load him back into his pool before Marco could gather his senses. It had been something Ace had been wanting to do for a long time, and he had no regrets, even if he had left Marco behind.

For once, Ace was getting what he wanted, and he enjoyed the feeling.

**.**

It was a warm morning when Ace noticed something was very wrong. Marco had yet to visit, and the kiss was still vivid in Ace’s mind, but something had changed, and something was terribly wrong.

The tip of Ace’s fin seemed to have petrified, and Ace reached down with shaking hands. He couldn’t feel how his fingers grazed the stony fin, and he felt panic well in his chest.

Every merperson knew of the legend that spoke of petrification. It was a story told to children, of lost love and romance and all that. Ace had always thought it was ridiculous, and if any turning to stone had happened, it had to have been for a proper reason. There was no reason for Ace to start petrifying though, not one that he knew of, and his heart pounded in his chest as he wondered whether the legend had been right all along.

Supposedly, a merperson solidifying to stone spoke of an unrequited love. When a merperson gave their heart and soul to another and received nothing in return, their body turned against them, hardening until the merperson died. It was happening to Ace now, and he didn’t know how he’d cope with it.

Of course, there was also the fact that something had caused this, and if it really was due to unrequited love, then how could he bear looking at Marco the next time they were together? He could see it now, Marco wondering why he wasn’t coming out of the pool, and Ace would be too embarrassed to admit that he literally couldn’t pull himself out, his body too far gone for him to stop it.

No, Ace thought. That couldn’t happen. He was strong. Ace had fought through worse than this before, so he was going to pull through. Turning to stone was not how his life was going to end, and it certainly wasn’t due to some misguided, unrequited love.

Ace flexed his tail, moving it as much as he could from then on. If he could keep the blood flowing, keep himself moving, his heart and soul would stay in their proper place, and he’d stay a merperson. It had to be that simple.

Except, it wasn’t. Movement didn’t stem the build-up of rock, and as Ace waited for Marco to reappear, the entire lower half of his bottom fin had become useless. His dreams of returning to the ocean and swimming free were dead now. There was no way he’d survive without the full use of his tail, and Ace spent most of his day floating in the water, thinking of the freedom he’d had and the life he would never go back to.

The worst part was that he still couldn’t hate Marco. He wanted to, really wanted to, but it was if there was a rope tying him to Marco. It told Ace that he couldn’t leave him, couldn’t hate or forget him, and Ace had spent a large portion of the day trying to fill his lungs with water at the bottom of the pool, just so he could forget about Marco for a few minutes as he struggled to regain oxygen.

And still Marco hadn’t visited him in days. If Ace didn’t know of Marco’s abilities, he might be a little more worried, but he was sure Marco was okay. He’d feel it, Ace thought, though he wanted to curse his ridiculousness the moment he thought that. Perhaps petrification was already working on his brain, and he’d turned into something docile and ridiculous. It was possible, Ace thought one night, on the shore as he watched the stone spreading up the trunk of his tail.

It was around a week or so since Marco had been gone that he suddenly reappeared, and Ace fumbled to quickly get himself into the water. He rested on the edge, holding himself up as he could hardly use his tail anymore. He smiled brightly, pushing away the panic of being in a pool he could hardly swim in anymore and watching Marco as he unlocked the bars, slipping in with a huge bucket of fish.

“Where did you get to?” Ace asked, casually lounging back on the rim of the pool as Marco threw some fish in. He tried to act as though his curiosity was the thing holding him back from chasing the fish as he usually did, and he smiled up at Marco innocently.

“That’s the thing,” Marco said, excitement building up in his voice. It had to be something good if Marco was this excited, and Ace didn’t need to fake his interest anymore.

“I found a miracle doctor,” he said, handing Ace a fish. Ace took it slowly, though he wasn’t hungry at all. He had wondered if his stomach had started to turn to stone, but that couldn’t happen. Could it? Either way, Ace wasn’t hungry much these days, which was just as well. Without Marco, Ace only got fed once every other day, and then it was leftovers more than anything good.

“He’s quite far inland, so I’ll be gone a few weeks at the least,” Marco continued, and he smiled brightly at Ace. “This is the real deal though. If I get this doctor’s cure, my captain will be okay. He’ll live and be healthy, and everything will have been worth it.”

Ace forced a smile, wondering if Marco would ever go so far to get a cure for his petrification. Ace didn’t have weeks though, and he’d never be as selfish as to get in the way of Marco’s personal mission. He’d spent so long trying to save his captain that Ace couldn’t steal that away. So he smiled and nodded brightly.

“When do you leave?” he asked, his tail twinging a little as some fish nibbled it. They recognised dead cells and were biting harder than any cleaning fish would, but getting himself out of the water wasn’t an easy job for Ace.

And he didn’t want Marco to see the stone covering his body. Ace would hide it, and that would be that. There was no cure for petrification, but he could at least rest easy in the knowledge that Marco had achieved what he’d always wanted.

“I leave tonight,” Marco said, eyes bright as he nodded. This meant so much to him, and the twist of pain in Ace’s stomach was nothing in comparison. He nodded too, leaning back and hauling himself out of the pool, careful to keep the lower half of his tail submerged.

“Have a safe journey then!” Ace said brightly, and Marco looked at him in befuddlement for a moment, as if he’d expected something else. He stared at Ace for a while, and then shook his head.

“Thank you,” he said softly, leaving without another word.

As the door to the main deck slammed shut, Ace lay back on the ground and fought the tears springing to his eyes. He covered his face with his hands and let the tears slip silently out, face curled in a grimace.

There was so much he’d wanted to say, but now there would be no chance.

Whether it was due to a legend of having his heart stolen by unrequited love or something such as a disease or parasite, Ace was slowly turning to stone. There was no way back from that, and he knew he would never see Marco again.

He had his memories though, of the ocean and its freedom, of Marco talking to him through the long nights and the storms, and of the kiss Ace had stolen at the lagoon. They were things no one could ever take from Ace, and he had done well, when he thought about it.

Besides, he’d always known he was going to die in this pool. The method of death really didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, did it?

**.**

Marco returned to the Moby Dick on a clouded, almost-stormy day. The air was thick and hot, and he climbed up the side of the boat with ease, noting that there were more than the usual number of people gathered on deck.

“Has a storm warning been called?” he asked, though he didn’t see why it would have. Some shook their heads and others glanced at Marco with an odd look in their eyes. An uneasy feeling curled in his stomach and he looked to Thatch as he stepped up to greet him.

“There’s something you need to see,” Thatch said, and Marco’s stomach dropped.

“Is Oyaji okay?” he asked, and Thatch nodded quickly.

“Sleeping, but he’s fine. Did you get what you needed?” Thatch said, leading Marco towards the trap door that led downstairs. Marco murmured a reply (he had gotten a potion that should help Whitebeard, but the doctor had warned it might not work and hadn’t that just been brilliant), the unease he felt multiplying as they stepped closer and closer to Ace’s pool.

Had Ace killed someone? It was possible, Ace had accepted Marco, but he was still a predator of the ocean. One of the younger crew would have been extremely easy prey, and Marco hoped Ace hadn’t done that. It would be impossible to explain that as something simple, and Marco might have to let Ace go. Or worse, sell him to Kaido.

And letting Ace go really wasn’t an option anymore.

Thatch was silent as they rounded the corner to the pool, and at first Marco didn’t see anything strange. The pool was as still as it could be and Ace was sitting in the corner. It was a little odd he was out of the water, but nothing completely out of character that everyone needed to be worried over.

“What is this all about?” Marco asked, turning his back on Ace and looking at Thatch with a frown. “I don’t understand.”

“Marco,” Thatch said slowly, eyes drifting over to Ace. And, Marco had to admit, Ace was being uncharacteristically quiet. Usually he’d at least slapped his tail against the ground or water to let Marco know his presence had been acknowledged, but there was nothing.

And that was when he saw it. Marco looked at Ace and realised that no living being could ever be so still. His heart dropped out of his chest, and Marco moved to the door of the pool instantly.

“No,” he whispered, and Thatch said something behind him, something he didn’t catch and didn’t care to hear. “No, Ace, no, no,” Marco continued, scrabbling to unlock the door. He hauled it open and ran inside, stopping a moment later before the curled figure of Ace.

He was stone, Marco noted absently. Ace’s entire body had petrified, his eyes still staring out at the world and mouth curled slightly in a smile. Breath was long gone from his body, but he looked as if he was about to comment on something, turn to Marco with a bright smile and slip into his pool, discussing what the sea was like where Marco could never reach it. Or perhaps, Marco thought, Ace would dart forwards once more and kiss him ever so softly, but that would never happen now, never again.

“What happened?” Marco asked, and he could see Thatch move to the bars from the corner of his eye.

“He just started turning to stone one day,” Thatch explained slowly, and Thatch was someone who would never lie to Marco. “We tried to fix him, but nothing he let us do worked. In the end he just stopped letting us do anything. He just… sat there.”

Marco closed his eyes and took a deep breath. There was no way back for Ace now. Ace was stone, and stone remained until the end of time. And Ace had likely know when Marco left, he thought, and the thought clenched his heart tightly.

“You can leave us,” Marco said, and he took a seat beside Ace, mirroring his position. “Please,” Marco added, and Thatch nodded respectfully.

Ace hadn’t deserved this, Marco thought, but he’d still captured him and let him rot in this pool. Marco sighed, wishing there was something he could do to bring Ace back. If he could bring Ace back, he’d let him go free. If it meant never seeing Ace again, Marco would do it. He had caused so much suffering, so, so much, but Ace had seen through all of that.

Ace had been the closest friend he’d ever had.

“I’m sorry,” Marco said, leaning his head back against the wall. He let his hand skim against the stone that had formed Ace, wishing he could feel warm skin rather than cool stone. “I’m so sorry.”

A short time passed, but eventually, Marco stood slowly, mechanically, and walked away from Ace, footsteps echoing around the quiet storeroom. There was nothing down here for Marco anymore. There was no going back. He had to deal with the consequences and live with what he had done. As he always did.

**.**


End file.
